The Prodigy and Public Enemy, Hydro, Glasgow, gig review: The billing is a perfect match

Prior to this arena double bill, there may have been some who viewed it as a novelty package tour of headline controversies from years gone by. Footing the bill and representing hazy memories of rap’s early days in the 1980s are Long Island’s Public Enemy, mostly in their 50s now, but still a stark reminder of the days when angry, socially conscious lyrics were the genre’s norm. Alongside them, Essex rave icons the Prodigy, fondly remembered for the cartoonish but cobweb-clearing punk aesthetic which frightened so many parents during their 1990s’ Britpop-era heyday.

Yet both groups, for all their elder years and sense that their time at the cutting edge of culture is behind them, are still admirably active and fiercely uncompromising as artists. Back in June Public Enemy released their thirteenth studio record ‘Man Plans, God Laughs’, and the title track fitted in here as a bullishly confrontational classic in the vein of ‘Bring the Noise’, ‘Fight the Power’ and ‘Shut ‘Em Down’, all played in the set. “Am I a radical? / am I a pacifist? / am I scared to fight? / I ain't askin’,” spat Chuck D, laying his cards down.

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Against a backdrop of blood-red lights and DJ Lord’s screeching mixes, the unlikely dynamic at the core of the group retains perfect balance; on the one hand, Chuck’s learned, heads-down agit-prop, and on the other, the clock-wearing Flavour Flav’s visceral party-hard style. They may have been inadvertently off-message with one another when Chuck declared he would have voted for Scottish independence and Flav said he was against all forms of “separatism” (although the comment was aimed at “racist mother****ers” in his own country), but their lively set is only ever enhanced by the firmness of belief at the music’s heart.

After Public Enemy, the fact that the Prodigy could be placed in the same bracket was the real surprise of the evening. In their glory days they were viewed as a loud and lairy party band, with their simplistic lyrical edge regularly cause for tabloid furore (the pyromaniac ‘Firestarter’ here sounds almost childishly snotty, although ‘Smack My Bitch Up’s is even harder to like or understand after two decades of feminist advance). Yet if programmer Liam Howlett and MCs/hypemen Maxim and Keith Flint are out of step with current fashion, it’s only to their huge benefit.

Under a stunning lightshow and before a heaving crowd, the thundering sonic assault of guitar, drums and electronic bass sounds more fiercely punk than anything that has gone before or since, a take-no-prisoners challenge to get off the sidelines and get involved. From classic like ‘Voodoo People’ and ‘Everybody in the Place’ to the more recent ‘Invaders Must Die’ and ‘The Day is My Enemy’, the title track of this year’s sixth album, they’re a thrillingly resolute experience - and more nakedly political than might be remembered in the ever-fresh free party anthem ‘Their Law’. The billing is a perfect match, and a pleasingly exciting arena experience on the politely commercial contemporary landscape.